How to Get PMP Certified in 2026: Eligibility, Costs and the New Exam
Mar 03, 2025
By Stephen Adindu, PMP and PRINCE2 Practitioner, Lead Coach at The Career Accelerators. Last updated October 2026.
To get PMP certified in 2026, you need two to five years of project leadership experience from the last 10 years, depending on your education, plus 35 hours of project management training. Then you apply to PMI (the Project Management Institute), pay the exam fee and pass the PMP exam. Since 9 July 2026, the exam has 180 questions over 240 minutes, and much more of it covers the business environment. You keep the certification by earning 60 professional development units (PDUs) every three years.
This guide covers each step, who is eligible, what it costs, what changed in the new exam, and the training rule that changes on 1 December 2026.
Key takeaways
|
What is the PMP certification?
The Project Management Professional (PMP) is PMI's certification for experienced project managers. It shows employers that you have led projects and that you know predictive, agile and hybrid ways of working. It is used across industries, from IT and construction to healthcare and finance.
The difference shows up in pay. PMI's Earning Power salary survey (14th edition, November 2025) found that PMP holders earn a 17% higher median salary than people without it, across the 21 countries surveyed.
What changed in 2026?
Two changes matter if you are starting now.
- A new exam from 9 July 2026. PMI rebalanced the exam toward business value and strategy. It added case-study and graphic-based questions and now covers trends such as AI and sustainability within project scenarios. Study guides built for the 2021 exam use the old domain weights and task list and don't cover the new question types.
- A new training rule from 1 December 2026. From that date, PMI only counts live, instructor-led training toward your 35 hours if it comes from a PMI Authorized Training Partner (ATP), a China Registered Education Provider or an eligible accredited academic program. Training you complete before 1 December 2026 still counts under the old rules.
PMI also widened eligibility. Experience now counts from the last 10 years instead of 8, and there is a separate path for associate's degrees and vocational diplomas.
Am I eligible for the PMP?
You need to meet one of these four paths. Every path also needs 35 hours of project management training. An active CAPM certification counts instead of the training.
| Your education | Project leadership experience | Training |
|---|---|---|
| High school diploma or equivalent | 60 months (5 years) | 35 hours |
| Associate's degree or vocational diploma | 48 months (4 years) | 35 hours |
| Bachelor's degree or higher | 36 months (3 years) | 35 hours |
| Bachelor's or postgraduate degree from a PMI GAC-accredited program | 24 months (2 years) | 35 hours |
Two rules catch people out:
- Only count months once. If you ran two projects at the same time, those months count once.
- Count only the last 10 years. Experience older than that doesn't count.
"Leading projects" doesn't require the job title "project manager." Leading the work on part of a project, such as planning, coordinating the team, managing risks or reporting to stakeholders, counts if you can describe it clearly.
Stephen's tip: The experience our students most often leave off is project work done inside a job that wasn't called "project manager": rolling out a new system as a business analyst, running an office move, or leading a process change in operations. If you planned it, coordinated people and saw it through, write it up as a project with a start date, an end date and an outcome.
How do I get the 35 hours of training?
Any project management course can count, as long as it gives you a record of completion that shows the hours. The 1 December 2026 rule changes who can deliver live training:
| When you finish the training | Live (instructor-led) training | Self-paced training |
|---|---|---|
| Before 1 December 2026 | Counts from any eligible provider | Counts from any eligible provider |
| On or after 1 December 2026 | Counts only from a PMI ATP, a China REP or an eligible accredited academic program | Counts from any eligible provider |
If you are close to finishing a live course from a provider that isn't an ATP, finish it before 1 December and keep the completion certificate.
If you train with TCA: the self-paced part of our Project Management Coaching course counts toward your 35 hours. It gives you all 35 hours, with a completion certificate that shows them. Hours from our live PMP course count if you finish it by 30 November 2026.
How to get PMP certified, step by step
| 1. Check eligibility Match your education to a path and add up your months of experience. |
2. Do the 35 hours Finish your training and keep the certificate. |
3. Join PMI This is optional, but it costs less than it saves on the exam fee. |
4. Apply online Describe each project and the work you led. |
5. Pay and book Pay the fee, then book with Pearson VUE at a test centre or online. |
6. Pass the exam You have one year and up to three attempts. |
Writing your application
The application is where most of the work is. For each project, you list your role, the dates and a short description of what you did. Describe the work in terms of the exam domains: how you planned, led the team, managed risks and stakeholders, and delivered results. Be specific. A vague description is a common reason an application gets questioned.
PMI usually processes online applications within about five days. Some applications are picked at random for an audit. If yours is chosen, you have 90 days to send proof of your education, your training and your experience. Your one-year exam window starts once your application is approved. If you are audited, it starts once the audit is complete.
Booking the exam
You book through Pearson VUE and can sit the exam at a test centre or online at home. Moving or cancelling your appointment within 30 days of the exam costs US$70. Within 48 hours of the exam you can't move it, and cancelling or missing it means you lose the full exam fee.
How much does the PMP cost in 2026?
| Fee | PMI member | Non-member |
|---|---|---|
| Exam (first attempt) | US$405 | US$655 |
| Each retake | US$275 | US$375 |
| Renewal (every 3 years) | US$60 | US$150 |
| PMI membership (first year) | About US$169 | n/a |
Membership saves US$250 on the exam alone, more than it costs. It also includes a digital copy of the PMBOKĀ® Guide.
The exam fee and first-year membership are what pmi.org showed from Canada in October 2026; the retake and renewal fees are as training providers reported them. Check the price on pmi.org when you pay.
On top of the fees, budget for the 35 hours of training and practice exams. For ways to cut the total, see our guide to saving on PMP costs.
What is on the new PMP exam?
| Exam until 8 July 2026 | Exam from 9 July 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Questions | 180 (175 scored) | 180 (170 scored, 10 unscored pretest) |
| Time | 230 minutes | 240 minutes |
| Breaks | Two 10-minute breaks | Two 10-minute breaks |
| Approaches | A mix of predictive, agile and hybrid | About 40% predictive, 60% agile or hybrid |
| New question types | None | Case studies and graphic-based questions |
How the domain weightings changed
| People | 33% new | |
| 42% before | ||
| Process | 41% new | |
| 50% before | ||
| Business Environment | 26% new | |
| 8% before |
Source: PMI, PMP Examination Content Outline, July 2026.
Business Environment more than tripled. It now covers project governance and compliance, change control, risks and issues, continuous improvement, organizational change, and responding to changes outside the project. Planning and managing risk is now listed under this domain, so plan your study around the new outline rather than an older guide. If your experience is mostly hands-on delivery, give this domain extra time.
How should I prepare for the PMP exam?
- Use material written for the July 2026 outline. Older books and question banks overweight People and Process and leave out the new question types.
- Practice full, timed mocks. Four hours is a long sitting. Rehearse your pacing and when you'll take the two breaks.
- Study agile and hybrid properly. About 60% of the exam assumes agile or hybrid ways of working.
- Review every wrong answer. PMP questions test judgment: what a project manager should do first or next. Learning why an answer is wrong matters more than how many questions you do.
- Use the PMBOKĀ® Guide and the exam outline together. The outline tells you what is tested. The guide explains the principles behind it.
How we prepare PMP candidates at TCA
Our PMP certification training is live and online over five days (35 contact hours), on weekday or weekend schedules. It covers predictive, agile and hybrid approaches, with practice questions, full exam simulations and help with your PMP application. The course, practice questions and exam simulations are updated for the July 2026 exam and its new Exam Content Outline.
Hours from the live course count toward PMI's 35 if you finish it by 30 November 2026. After that, use the self-paced part of our Project Management Coaching course, which gives you all 35 hours.
You can also watch our video guide to PMP certification. It was recorded before the July 2026 exam update, so use the figures in this article for the exam format and fees.
How do I keep my PMP?
The PMP lasts three years. To renew, you earn 60 PDUs in each three-year cycle and pay the renewal fee. A PDU is one hour of learning or of giving back to the profession. Courses, webinars, conferences, volunteering, mentoring and writing about project management all count. The CCR Handbook sets out the categories and limits.
PMP certification FAQs
What is the passing score for the PMP exam?
PMI doesn't publish a passing score. You get a pass or fail result, plus a rating for each domain. Aim to score well above 70% on full-length practice exams before you book.
Do I need to be a PMI member?
No. But membership costs less than the US$250 it saves on the exam fee, so many candidates join first.
How many times can I take the PMP exam?
Up to three times within your one-year eligibility period, paying the retake fee each time. If you don't pass after three attempts, you must wait a year before you apply again.
Does my experience need to be in a project manager job?
No. It needs to be experience leading and directing project work. You can count it from any role, as long as you can describe what you led.
Will training I did before 1 December 2026 still count?
Yes. PMI says training completed before 1 December 2026 remains eligible under the rules that applied when you took it.
Can I take the PMP exam online?
Yes. Pearson VUE offers the exam online with a remote proctor, as well as at test centres.
Ready to start your PMP?
Our PMP certification training is updated for the July 2026 exam, with practice exams, full exam simulations and help with your application. Not sure which path fits, or how to get your 35 hours? Book a free call and we'll work out your eligibility with you.
Related reading: what a PMP retake costs and Scrum Master vs Project Manager.
Sources
- PMI: Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification, for eligibility paths, the 10-year window, exam length, breaks, the 60 PDUs and the 1 December 2026 date
- PMI: PMP Examination Content Outline, July 2026, for domain weights, the predictive/agile split, question counts and question types
- PMI: What's new in the updated PMP exam, for the July 2026 changes and the live-training rule
- PMI: PMP Certification Handbook, for the one-year eligibility period, attempts, audits and the rescheduling fee
- PMI: Earning Power survey, 14th edition (November 2025), for the 17% median salary advantage
- Simpliaxis: PMP exam fee increase 2026 and Rosemet: PMP certification cost, for the retake and renewal fees as reported in October 2026
